Thursday, September 16, 1999 Published at 13:04 GMT 14:04 UK http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid_449000/449061.stm Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED] X-Loop: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Precedence: bulk British woman jailed in Burma for singing songs A 28-year-old British woman has been sentenced to seven years labour by a Burmese court for singing anti-government songs. Rachel Goldwyn, of London, was arrested on 7 September after tying herself to a lamp post in central Yangon and singing pro-democracy slogans. Her defence lawyer told the Yangon court, which handed down the sentence, that she would lodge an appeal. Goldwyn was sentenced under Burma's Emergency Provisions Act, which has been used by the ruling military to stifle dissent. Presiding judge Tin Maung Lwin said the sentence would have to be served "with labour". Goldwyn admitted staging the protest but maintained she did not intend to incite unrest. Defence lawyer Kyi Win had argued that shouting pro-democracy slogans and singing a pro-democracy song were not criminal offences. Two weeks ago, another British activist, 26-year-old James Mawdsley, was sentenced to 17 years' imprisonment for passing out anti-government leaflets. He was jailed for 17 years without trial for entering the country illegally and carrying anti-government literature. Earlier this month a British diplomat was refused permission to visit him in prison, raising fears that he is being tortured. 'We will never forget' Goldwyn, who attended Goldolphin School in Hammersmith, London, was passionately committed to the cause of democracy in Burma. An economics graduate from the London School of Economics, Goldwyn became interested in the Burmese pro-democracy movement while working in a refugee camp in Thailand two years ago. Before leaving England, Miss Goldwyn wrote her parents a note which read: "Dear Mum and Dad, I'll be home in about two week's time. I'll be deported to Bangkok." But shortly after arriving in Burma she was arrested after singing the revolutionary song, "We will never forget" to a crowd of around 300 people. A group of students who sang the song in 1995 received 20-year prison sentences, according to the Democratic Burmese Students' Organisation (UK). Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
